What this woman is going to remember

KC of Bligbi has a post called “What this woman is going to remember.” It concerns McCains ludicrous idea that Hillary Clinton supporters are going to “remember” the treatment she received during the primaries, and will vote for the McCain/Palin ticket instead. And KC notes otherwise.

Which got me thinking . . . what am I going going to remember about this election? Here are a few things, in no particular order:

I will remember being lukewarm about both Obama and Clinton during the primaries (and in fact, I am still lukewarm about Obama – I just have such hatred for McCain that my neutral attitude towards Obama looks positively glowing in comparison). I will remember being terrified of Huckabee or Romney getting on the Republican ticket, and thinking that McCain would definitely be better than either of them.

I will remember, a few months later, wondering if Romney and Huckabee would have actually be worse than McCain.

I will remember being pretty much neutral at the Clinton loss, because I wasn’t a big fan of her to begin with. I was a little disappointed that we weren’t going to get a woman president this year, but as I wouldn’t really have wanted Clinton for president anyway, it didn’t mean all that much.

I will remember learning about Cynthia McKinney and getting excited about politics again.

I will remember a year when the election was in my life 24/7, because my partner worked for the Obama campaign.

I will remember being disappointed that McKinney did not actually get on the ballot in Texas (you could still vote via write-in, but there’s something disappointing about that).

I will remember a pain-free voting experience (I waited 7 hours to vote in 2004). I will remember being absolutely terrified when Palin got the VP nomination.

I will remember having to explain to my mother why having kids AND a job does not automatically make a woman a feminist.

I will remember being bored during the first two presidential debates. (Okay, maybe I won’t remember that so much . . .)

I will remember the fantastic, fun time I had during the VP debate. I will remember Joe Biden choking up on camera, and thinking about how brave he was to focus on fatherhood. I will remember feeling disgusted every time Sarah Palin winked at the camera or mispronounced “nuclear.”

I will remember getting an IUD inserted and thinking that even if McCain won, at least my uterus would be protected for the duration of his presidency.

Above all, I will remember watching that third presidential debate and watching John McCain put “health of the mother” in scare quotes, and feeling utterly sick when I realized just how much contempt he has for women, and how mysoginist people are, and how frightening it was that this man could have any role at all in legislating what I do with my body. Bill Ayers a terrorist? Bill Ayers doesn’t make me blink. John McCain? I feel a genuine shot of terror when I think that he could hold the highest office in our country.

So much of what you’ve written rings true for me as well – I was lucky enough to have my mother’s hatred for McCain to stop her from thinking anything positive about Palin and thank to goddess for that. I wouldn’t have wanted to have THAT conversation. 😉

My mom was never a Palin fan, actually. She considers the McCain/Palin ticket to be repugnant. However, she still thought that Sarah Palin = Feminist. *sigh* Well, she wasn’t going to vote for them anyway, so it wasn’t the worst thing in the world . . .

Perhaps I’ll remember waiting in line 3 hours to vote early on Halloween and that everyone in line seemed to be an Obama supporter.

McKinney didn’t make the ballot here either – even though she’s from Georgia. I was really surprised when I learned that the Libertarian candidate had made the ballot and that McKinney – the Green Party candidate – was only available as a write-in option in these parts.